Chris Sale Pitched a Masterpiece. The Red Sox Lost.

It was a memorable night for the Red Sox, as their ace, Chris
Sale, fashioned a masterpiece, striking out 17 batters in
seven innings, a few short of a major league record.

Unfortunately, after the Red Sox pulled Sale, Brandon Workman
blew the save, and the team managed to lose to the Colorado
Rockies, 5-4, in 11 innings on a cold Tuesday night at Fenway
Park.

In the seventh inning, with 14 strikeouts to his credit, Sale
gave up a two-run shot to Nolan Arenado. He still led, 3-2.
He then struck out three more batters in the inning to reach
17.

The major league record of 20 was looming. It was set by a
Red Sox player, Roger Clemens, and matched by Clemens
(again), Kerry Wood, Randy Johnson and Max Scherzer. But Sale
was at 108 pitches, and Manager Alex Cora decided that was
enough.

(Tom Cheney struck out 21 players in a game in 1962 for the
Washington Senators, but it came over 16 innings, and 20 is
generally recognized as the record.)

The pitchers with 18 or more strikeouts all pitched at least
eight innings; Sale’s 17 strikeouts were the most by any
pitcher throwing seven innings, breaking the record of 16
held by Johnson (three times) and a few others.

Johnson still holds the record for most Ks in a game that
went the wrong way. In 1997, he fanned 19 A’s in nine innings
but gave up four earned runs and took the loss.

As for keeping Sale in a little longer, Cora : “There’s a bigger goal here, and we’ve been
very disciplined throughout the process.” Of Sale’s reaction
he said, “In the tunnel he goes, ‘You’re not going to let me
get 20?’ Sarcastic, but probably serious too.”

Sale has thrown more than 108 pitches numerous times in his
career, including six times last season as well as on April
28 this year, when he threw 111. His record total is 127 from
2014.

Sale said after the game: “You got 17 punchouts, you
definitely want to go out for the last inning. But I respect
him as much as anybody on the planet, and I’ll never question
anything he does.”

Sale started the game with six straight Ks, and many of his
whiffs were of the extremely nasty variety, in some cases
making batters look quite bad.

Sale has been one of baseball’s best pitchers, with seven
consecutive All-Star selections and six consecutive years as
a top five Cy Young vote-getter. But he started the season
with five losses in his first six starts.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” . “I just flat-out stink right now. I don’t know
what it is.”

He seems to be turning it around in May though, with three
starts, all with double-digit strikeouts, ending with two Red
Sox wins and Tuesday’s unfortunate loss.

Sale’s previous high in strikeouts was 15, achieved three
times. (The Red Sox lost one of those games too, to the Blue
Jays in extra innings last May.) The game had the highest
strikeout total by a Red Sox player not named Clemens.

The cold weather — 44 degrees at the game’s start — may have
been a factor. Pitchers tend to benefit form cooler
temperatures, and all five of the 20-strikeout games in major
league history came in April, May or September.

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